Who pays

When a plumbing problem occurs in a unit (condominium) who pays. I think the owner pays if it just affects the owners unit, but if it affects another unit or common area, the association pays. Our President thinks that when it affects another unit or common area we should charge the owner a certanin percent of the bill. Do you think we can charge a percent to an owner when more than one area is affected?

"If any chute, flue, duct, wire, conduit, bearing wall, bearing column, or any other such component or fixture lies partially withing and partially outside the designated boundaries of an Apartment, any poertion thereof which does not affect the function of the other Apartments of the Common Areas and Facilities and serves only that Apartment is deemed a Limited Common Area allocated exclusively to that Apartment, and any portion thereof serving or affecting the function of more than one Apartment or any portion of the Common Areas and Facilities is part of the Common Areas and Facilities.

Bonnie,

What does your governing documents say about who maintains the common areas and does it address who maintains the limited use common areas?

Bonnie are you sure there isn't a section that specifically addresses plumbing? In our COA if the leak was before the shutoff valve for the unit it would be the Associations responsibility; if it was after the shutoff valve it would be the owners responsibility.

If the pipe leak was in the wall, and you needed to shut off the water to the building to stop it, I would say that would affect other unit owners. On the other hand, if the leak was on your toilet hose and the owner could stop the leak by turning off their toilet, that only affects 1 owner.